So, a month of school is nearly done, and we're quickly approaching the Thanksgiving Day weekend... in Canada at least. It's always amazing how the U.S. and Canada can have the same holiday yet have it in two totally different months. It begs the question, who is right? I'd like to think Canada can lay claim to this. Think about it for a second, the U.S. has deep-fried hotdogs wrapped in bacon, a President who doesn't know his left hand from his right hand and Gary Coleman running for govenor. Now, I 'm all for Gary being the best man he can be; afterall, he deserves some rewards after giving people many years of laughter, but come on, what has Canada done so wrong over the years? Celine Dion? Come on, America has Ricky Martin and N*Sync. Not even the UK can lay claim to that.

· · ·TNL Staff

Reno

I've been playing a lot of Wrestlemania XIX as of late. Despite not having a career mode, the game is wonderful. I'm really enjoying the new depth in the counters and I really do think that it is the next Aki-like game we've been waiting for. I felt that Def Jam Vendetta was decent, but removing some aspects of the engine from previous games is a big no-no to me. Other than that, I've been hamming it up with ESPN Hockey, although I haven't played online yet. I make a habit of only buying sports games once every other or every two years, so I'm still trying to get used to the new features that they put into the game, such as dekeing with the right analog stick, and having to learn to cycle down low with my forwards. Another title I'm playing is Simpsons: Hit & Run, which is another wonderful title. The action is getting a little repetitive (I'm only on the third stage), but the references from the TV show and crisp graphics are more than enough to keep me occupied.

Bahn

You know, back before I had invested in Xbox Live - I didn't give console online gaming a second thought. Well, actually that's not entirely true. I enjoyed playing Chu Chu Rocket during the peak of the Dreamcast era. But it lacked fighting games, and so as you can imagine, my interest faded out rather quickly.

That's all changed now with Capcom vs. SNK 2:EO, a game which I've been reguarly discussing in previous GMR editions. Addicted? You might say that. However, recently I think that I've gotten a bit too absorbed with the whole competitive experience. For instance, I have well over 120+ titles and here I am consistently playing the same game day in and out. So this week, I decided to mix my gaming sessions a bit with some of my erm, past and recent acquisitions...

With the upcoming release of Final Fantasy X-2, I decided to go back and play the original installment. This time, I am actually hoping to finish it (uh, actually I need to finish a few other Final Fantasy titles). I haven't touched my original session in months, so I don't remember some of the pivotal events that were encountered throughout the game. Compared to the sequel, I am beginning to wonder just how many fans will welcome the radical changes -- Yuna as a pop-singer? Dresspheres? And fan service? Ok, fan service can stay...every fan has to live out their dreams after all.

I recently gave ESPN Football a shot after sitting down with Madden 2004 (which by the way I consider to be excessively overhyped). I was really curious how Visual Concepts was going to pull of the First-Person Football technique which has been raved about among footall fanactics for weeks. To my surprise, it's good. Really good, but still far from perfect. I sucked at the running game (much like I generally do in the original format, but I remained triumphant when it came to passes). The action briefly slows down as the transition is made after the snap. It's very minor and I adjusted pretty quickly. I am sure that it will eventually catch on, but I am old-fashioned and don't expect to be changing my preference anytime soon. I even took a shot at playing against someone online -- however being unaccustomed to the controls, I got dominated pretty quickly and graciously requested my opponent to let me leave the game with my dignity intact. I'll have my revenge soon enough!

Pokemon Pinball, the one game which I did not expect to enjoy has given me a renewed fondness for owning my Game Boy Advance. I haven't had the chance to pick up the Sonic Pinball -- which seems to be a throwback to the original Sega pinball sensation, Sonic Spinball. As I pointed out in my review, I couldn't bear to play any of the Pokemon editions available. Pokemon Pinball essentially retains the same premise, compelling players to catch all 200 Pokemon (and I suppose rave to all their friends about their grand achievement). I am only up to 16 Pokemon, and the game believe it or not, is more of a challenge than I expected. I expect that I'll eventually have all the critters in my virtual possession within the next few weeks. I need to get cracking though, since I am way behind schedule. CVS2 is going to definitely need to take a back seat for a few days...

haohmaru

Haunted Mansion

A Disney license that’s turning out to be a real treat. I’ll be doing a preview on this title very soon for TNL. You explore the Haunted Mansion looking to capture spirits and release the tortured ghosts from their proverbial “prisons” which is being run by a nasty spirit. The other ghosts are benign and want to go about their business and it’s up to you to help set them free. Interesting puzzles and challenges merged with solid game play. My only difficulties have been with certain implementations of the camera and touchy control. Otherwise, shaping up to be a unique title that’s certainly worthy of your attention. Strong visuals, excellent environments, and varied elements to get your noodle in motion. The main character (you) doesn’t really inspire you to be motivated, but if you’re not already inspired enough then you should probably find a new hobby.

Star Trek Shattered Alliance

Haven’t spent much time at all with this one, but it closely resembles the “Mirror Mirror” episode from over 30 years ago. Too early to comment on much, besides the fact that Sulu and Chekhov are present and are boasting the voice talents of the original actors, which is always a plus.

The Great Escape

Steve Mcqueen, where art thou? He’s in this, probably the oldest film ever to grant a movie license to a video game. It starts off with a bang, but slowly turns into a seemingly never ending quest and fetch game that has some serious deficiencies. Guards spot you for no apparent reason, for example, and it’s a frustrating exercise in repeating a particular mission over and over because you have to discover where you’re really not supposed to be despite what obviously looks like where you’re not supposed to be.

burgundy

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA)

After a little vixen named Isabel showed up in our neck of the woods, we’re on Day Six without power in Northern Virginia. Marche and company (and my Torchic SP) saved my sanity before I waited on line to pick up the fourth of six generators left over at Lowes. I even stayed up all night with the hurricane, oblivious to the trees falling left and right outside because I had my foes falling left and right inside. Friday’s big score, after finding a flushing toilet, was a car charger for the SP I found at an understaffed, dimly-lit Target that ensured I had enough juice for another late night with a few cute Viera. It’s like living in the Stone Age, except instead of cave drawings, I have a backlit portable. If this keeps up I might have to buy Banjo-Kazooie.

James

When last I wrote, I was playing Tales of Destiny 2. Due to no time whatsoever in the last few weeks I'm still playing Tales of Destiny 2, but at least I've made some headway. It's still fun, I'm still enjoying the playing, but RPGs can be looooong term affairs, particularly when play time is limited.

In the meantime, the GBA has been getting good use. Lufia 2 has gotten put aside after a cheap, stupid death lost about two hours of play time, but Boktai stepped in nicely to take up the slack. Boktai is very well done, a gorgeous action/stealth game with clever level design and a great balance of stealth to action. The game's gimmick of needing sunlight to fight bosses can be a pain, particularly seeing as it's been either overcast or night when I've gotten to them, but it's also having the effect of making me view real-world sunlight as a resource rather than something that's just "there". I'm not quite ready to wire up my apartment to solar panels yet, but I've only had the game for a few days.

Every once in a while a new reason to play Animal Crossing arrives. In this case, it's a new roommate who's gotten a game going. After a few minutes of cockroach killing in the house, plus a ton of weeding, I once again had a presentable village. My only regret is not playing at all during the latter half of August, the only time of the year to catch one of the two fish I'm missing. The thing about a game like Animal Crossing is that once you play it enough, you either begin to not care about the item collecting or go a bit nuts about it. My shameful admission - printing out the item checklist, numbering the Gyroids on it, and then cataloging them at the post office in alphabetical/numeric order. Over six months of off and on play can do that to a person...

Finally, a bit of shootery action rounded out the weeks. Rez got a few days of play when I wasn't in the mood for much of anything, and tonight I ordered Gridrunner ++ for a whopping $8.50. 20 minutes of play has shown that the incredible playability of the demo wasn't a fluke and that The Zone may be calling me back once I'm done typing this up. "Pretty little sheepie!"

Ren

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (GBA)

One game has been consuming my life for the past week or so. Yes, that would be Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. I was a big fan of the original, and I'm rather impressed with the "sequel". So many minor annoyances have been eliminated. Now you can completely redo your turn (and move) if you don't think that an action will work out for the best. Characters don't die forever if you leave them for too long without giving them a Phoenix Down. You don't need to master an entire class just to use items. I'm not saying that FFTA is necessarily better than its predecessor, but it certainly does improve a few minor frustrating flaws in gameplay.

I can't say much about the storyline because I've barely even advanced the plot at this point. I've played for 20 hours and I'm just having fun taking missions, learning new abilities, and changing job classes. The best part about this is that the game is portable, so you can have fun and/or yell angrily at a tiny screen while on a break between classes, at work, on the bus, etc. FFTA is incredibly fun and addictive if you're a tactical RPG or Final Fantasy fan. Oh, and those Viera things are sexy.

sleeveboy

Tempest 2000 (Saturn)

Finally got a hold of this at a 2 for 1 sale at my local game shop. Pure Minter trippyness, definitely living up to the hype. Wish the Saturn had some kind of paddle controller, though. I can’t get used to the vertigo-inducing D-pad.

Rez (PS2)

Another long-awaited purchase. Snagged it for 20 beans at the aforementioned sale. Great with headphones! Everybody’s said just about all that needs to be said about this wonderful game, but I’ll just add one thing: this game really tires out my thumb. Much more than other shooters (has to do with all the locking on and such). But that’s a good thing.

Hitman 2 (Xbox)

Game 3 acquired at the sale mentioned above. Still haven’t played it yet.

KOTOR (Xbox)

Dark side. Currently wrapping up the side quests so I can make my way to the “unknown planet.” Great game, but the loading times really do get old.

Realistic 8-Track player (ed. sleeve is old)

Found this beauty at a garage sale for 5 bucks. 5 bucks! And it works perfectly. Picked up two boss tapes to go with it: Simon and Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits and the Beach Boys’ Endless Summer.

Sqoon

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (PS2)

With a new quarter of school of starting, I'm still adjusting to the new time table, at the expense of posting news, and definitely at the expense of spending quality time with Disgaea. Atlus has done it again and released a fantastic little gem of a game. Read Hero's spot-on review.

Teddman

Soul Blade (PSOne)

I've been having so much fun with Soul Calibur II (Xbox version) lately that I felt like checking out the game that started it all. I recall playing Soul Blade a few times at a friend's house back in 1996, but it's even better than I remembered it being at the time. Holds up pretty well today, being perhaps the most polished of the PSOne's 3D fighters. And the FMV intro movie showing all the franchise characters in action is excellent, the longest and in my opinion the best featured in any game of the series!

There were only ten selectable fighters in the original, but it's a satisfying cast. Rock was never in the series after this game as far as I know, except as an alternate costume for Astaroth in Soul Calibur. He's the Native American behemoth with the huge axe. In addition, you can unlock and play as Soul Edge, the wicked-looking final boss. Each character has five different costumes too; most of which are selectable from the outset.

The graphics are high quality by PSOne standards, and the play control is hardly different from Soul Calibur 1 or 2, except things are a bit slower and you can't use the analog stick. Also, pushing up = jump. Soul Calibur veterans could probably dive right in and be comfortable.

Soul Blade has almost all of the nice extra modes & features that the later sequels do, including practice mode, team attack mode, survival mode, time battle mode, a command list in the pause menu, and even the "Edge Master" story mission mode (like the Weapon Master Mode from SC2). That mode is really fun, and even has some aspects that I prefer over later versions. Whomever you're playing with through Edge Master mode actually appears on the map as an animated figure (not just a cursor to move to a location), and you get a new weapon for every single challenge you win. Your character is even shown on the map holding the current weapon you're using! The stats of each weapon are clearly broken down into different categories (strength, power, defense, etc) something you don't see in the other games. I like the way the game proceeds through Edge Master mode as if you are reading a book called "Soul Blade."

Edge Master mode is mercifully short too (only 8 missions), and that's fine by me. There are different challenges and story paths for each character, so there is a lot of replay value--unlike Soul Calibur 2 where you can freely switch characters as you progress through Weapon Master Mode, but there aren't any real differences depending on who you use. And no long, frustrating dungeons to wade through in Soul Blade!

I'm happy to see that Cervantes is the keeper of Soul Edge/Calibur and the penultimate boss, not Nightmare. I always thought he was a sicker character (a swashbuckling evil pirate) and the final boss he transforms into, Soul Edge, is much cooler than Inferno if you ask me. I recommend all Soul Calibur fans check out Namco's Soul Blade and see how the great fighting series began. The game's not hard to find used (or new) for cheap, and besides filling in the origins of the game's story--it's still a darn good fighting game!

18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker - Dreamcast I bought this little arcade port a couple years ago when Dreamcast software seemed to be on clearance sale at every store in the neighborhood. At the time I knew that it had a reputation for being a ridiculously short game, but a $10 Sega AM2 arcade title just looked too attractive a bargain to pass up.

Well, it turns out that I had one hell of an hour playing 18 Wheeler, and I don't regret my purchase a bit. Yes, the playtime probably isn't longer than the average trucker's pit stop at a Howard Johnson's, but it's a fun ride while it lasts. Four frantic stages (plus a handful of bonus "parking challenges") in which you have to haul your payload to a new destination as fast as possible, all the while trying to keep up with a mischievous rival trucker named "Lizard Tail." It's often compared to Crazy Taxi, but the feeling of driving a huge big-rig comes across so well that it feels like a completely different experience.

Sometime between the realization that the fastest route to the finish line of one course was to plow right on through a trailer park, and the instance when I skidded my load of lumber across four lanes to nudge Lizard Tail smashing headlong into an oncoming Mac Truck, I heard a "Yee-Haw!" echo through the room. I think it came from me. Lately I've been feeling a hunger for beef jerky, a desire to add mudflaps to my SUV, and a strange need to get a CB radio... I may need to seek help.

Hey, didn't King of Route 66 for PS2 and Big Mutha Truckers for Xbox get price drops recently?